I just wanted to make that clear. I paid good money to attend a career fair in DC last week– like some girl who believes maybe if she goes to this bar the man of her dreams will be there. I knew he wasn’t going to be there, but I felt like I should always be doing something since I won’t find him in my current office.

The fair was geared toward “mid-level” career seekers, whatever that means. I know I’m not fresh out of college and I know I’m not a senior executive–where else I fall on the infamous career ladder between those two ranks depends on the institution or company. Looking-in from the outside I can’t see over the gray cubicle divider. It’s like going through adolescence all over again without the pimples.

At University, I remember snaking my way through perky brunettes and other aggressive types storming to the front of the table with those self-made business cards. This time around, I was competing with individuals in their 40s and 50s. We all had appropriate business cards paid for by our companies, thankfully, but I was depressed. As a friend stated the other day, “when do jobs start to come to me? When does that part of my career begin?” If you are lucky and strategic and well-connected I suppose. There were a lot more gray and bald heads than bottle blondes at that fair. I’m just saying that figuring out what comes next professionally or personally never ends. Hopefully, career fairs will.